The DownsideWhile
difficult to fault anything in this player’s performance, I have some
minor issues. First, to me, the remote is a little clunky and the
buttons could be larger, which would make the backlighting easier to
read at night. I suspect most people buying this player have other
remotes or systems to control it, so this isn’t a big issue, but I want
a cool remote for this price, even if it is going to be hidden in the
closet somewhere. This is also a large and heavy player, and will need
appropriate shelf space and breathing room. Sonically, the bass could
have been better defined on SACD playback, but overall, the output was
musical and pleasant. The fact that these are the only things I found
to fault this player for speaks volumes to just how good it is.

Conclusion
The Denon DVD-5910CI is an exceptional universal player, capable of
spinning any silver disc you can throw at it, except for Blu-ray and HD
DVD. It offers remarkable bass management and speaker set-up, as well
as an unheard-of array of video outputs (which are all active),
multiple options in video scaling, Gamma correction and other variables
that can be assigned to any of five preset video outputs’ memories,
allowing this player to truly live up to Denon’s “CI” status. All the
advance control options you could want are here, as well as Denon’s own
proprietary link to mate to their receivers. This link and HDMI
connection literally made this the simplest component I’ve connected to
any system in years.

The DVD-5910CI is not inexpensive, but no matter who you are, you still
need a good DVD player for several more years. Factor in the
exceptional performance of this player, not only on DVD-Video but also
on CD, SACD and DVD-Audio, and the over-the-top build quality it
exhibits, and I think the Denon DVD-5910CI is very reasonably priced.
The DVD-5910CI impressed me with its uncanny ability to handle
musically complicated passages with ease, distinction and smoothness,
without ever sounding soft or thin. Nothing stood out about this
player; everything just sounded and looked great with it. This player’s
wonderfully musical and downright pleasant nature made it an absolute
joy to hear. Some people will consider me insane for considering a
$3,800 dollar player “reasonable,” but given all the Denon’s
attributes, I challenge them to find better for the price.